[Puffer Fish]

(this article is mainly about the U.S., but the same issue is happening in several other countries)

Due to the shortages of lower priced housing options and high rent prices, the younger generation is increasingly having to pack together with roommates to be able to afford rent, if they are to move out of their parents home.

It's not surprising. Due to a shortage of lower priced housing options, young adults are having to cram together into housing situations. This of course can create all sorts of additional stresses.

While it's true that having roommates has always been popular among the younger adult population, the situation has changed and become more dire now. Many who do not want to live with roommates are finding themselves forced to do so.

Renting alone is too expensive for Gen Z

The article shows a map, "Share of renters who live alone by metro area, 2022"

The average age of someone living alone now is 50 years old, and it used to be 25 years old.
Generation Z is being squeezed out, and most have roommates and friends, spouses, even parents.
The typical homebuyer now is 50 years old.
87% of Gen Z lives with their parents because it's unaffordable to rent or buy right now.

Many young Americans are splitting steep rents that eat into their income. Meanwhile, more baby boomers have ditched homeownership for low-maintenance apartments.

The big picture: Squeezed Gen Z-ers are moving in together or leaving big cities.

Some are getting creative: Manhattan transplant Piper Phillips shared a one-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend and a friend.

More are returning to their childhood bedrooms: The number of Americans aged 25–34 living at home has jumped over 87% in the past two decades, per census data.

It's not just the East and West coasts that are out of reach. Solo living is unaffordable in many of the country's bigger cities, including Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., according to The Economist's Carrie Bradshaw index.

Nationally, 17.6% of renters lived alone in 2022, census data shows.

The typical repeat homebuyer this year was 58, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

link to article
Renting alone is too expensive for Gen Z, Sami Sparber, Axios - Economy, updated Nov 21, 2023


It wasn't that long ago that being expected to move out and live on one's own at the age of 18 was common in the United States. Many parents had this attitude in the 1990s. Obviously it's become unrealistic today.

1 out of 10 young adults now experience homelessness each year in the U.S.

Gen Z has experienced exceptionally high poverty rates -- greater than those of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers during 2010 to 2021 (the years available on the KIDS COUNT Data Center). The share of zoomers living in poverty reached a peak of 23% in 2011 and 2012, then steadily fell to 17% -- about 11.3 million young people -- by 2021.​

What the Statistics Say About Generation Z, updated Nov 1, 2023. Annie. E. Casey Foundation

The high costs of housing are especially hurting those who did not buy their house yet and those who have not had time to get a foothold on the career ladder.

other related threads which might be of interest:
Rising rent costs force some Canadians to take on additional part-time jobs
Canada has a housing crisis, could be a warning for U.S.
Younger generation moving to rural regions because they cannot afford housing

[Dimetrodon]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

[Puffer Fish]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

It's also what happens when population growth increases too fast, faster than the economy and new housing growth can sustain it. All of that population growth in developed countries is being fueled by foreign immigration.
The young, who have less money, are having to compete for jobs and housing with adult immigrants.

Both of these groups do not have enough money to create new demand for housing. Building new homes costs money.
What typically happens is, over time, some wealthier middle class families build or buy new houses, and then some of the older homes left behind become available for lower income groups.

[Truth To Power]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

Specifically, the greed of landowners. The greed of the welfare chiseler for unearned wealth is to the greed of the landowner as the brightness of the moon is to the brightness of the sun. Landowner greed has reliably destroyed every civilization that has not found a way to moderate it.

[Truth To Power]

It's also what happens when population growth increases too fast, faster than the economy and new housing growth can sustain it. All of that population growth in developed countries is being fueled by foreign immigration.

But it is still quite moderate in historical terms. The lack of affordable housing is caused exclusively by the massive subsidy to idle landowning as proved, repeat, PROVED by the fact that in cities where property tax rates are high and land prices are consequently low, like Detroit, you can buy a serviceable single-family house for a few months' median after-tax wages.

The young, who have less money, are having to compete for jobs and housing with adult immigrants.

Immigrants bring economic opportunity -- but they can't bring land. The economy is easily capable of producing ample good housing at affordable prices. It is LAND that CANNOT be produced, and it is the exorbitant, increasing, and unsustainable subsidy to idle landowning that has made housing unaffordable by making land astronomically expensive. If you pay a few thousand dollars for a building lot, you don't mind living in a house that you can build on it for <$100K. But when you have to pay $500K for the exact same lot, you aren't going to be willing to live on it in a house that you can build for $200K.

Both of these groups do not have enough money to create new demand for housing.

Wrong. They easily have enough money to build housing. They just can't afford the land because its idle ownership is so exorbitantly subsidized.

Building new homes costs money.

But they cost a lot more because the land to build them on costs so much.

What typically happens is, over time, some wealthier middle class families build or buy new houses, and then some of the older homes left behind become available for lower income groups.

Or more accurately, that would happen, if the exorbitant over-subsidization of idle landowning weren't making the land so astronomically expensive.

[Puffer Fish]

A sign of how bad the rental market in Toronto has become. (Toronto is the biggest city in Canada)

A resident in Toronto posted a listing looking for a fellow female tenant who is willing to share her queen sized bed for $900.

"Not even a king [size bed] where you can comfortably place a pillow barrier. How does that work? You just say goodnight roomie and then you roll over?," Anya Ettinger said.

Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated situation. According to Rentals.ca, roommate rental listings have surged in the last few months across Canada since renters are constantly looking for ways to save on housing costs.
Toronto even took the third spot for having the most expensive rent nationally, just behind Victoria and Burnaby, B.C, with an average rent of $2,614 for a one-bedroom unit.

The listing for a "shared bedroom in a lake-facing downtown condo."
"Looking for an easygoing female to share the master bedroom and the one queen-size bed"

A $1,900 deposit is also required to cover first and last month's rent and the cost of fob keys.
Also, required is identification or a Canadian visa or residency proof, along with pay slips and proof of employment and, of course, a background check.

https://nowtoronto.com/lifestyle/this-i ... 0-a-month/
'Toronto is Unhinged': Shared bed is latest questionable rental, Toronto Sun, Denette Wilford, Oct 25, 2023